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Integrating PRO With Your Donor Database

Convergence is everywhere

For many of us, our workday is centered around a computer. Historically, this meant running several applications at the same time, jumping between them, and manually exporting and importing data back and forth. For better or worse, those days are coming to an end (and we think it’s for the best).

We now live in a world where people expect seamless integration between their software applications. We want to take care of business all within a single view. Working with integrated software saves time and increases productivity. In the world of fundraising intelligence, integration means being able to perform donor research within the donor database, typically a CRM/DMS.

“Does PRO integrate with X?”

Clients and curious folks often ask us about our integration opportunities. Indeed, integration is a major focus of our product development team. You may be surprised to know the opportunities don’t stop at Salesforce or Tessitura.

Here are some other ways you can access PRO data within your donor database.

Ye old traditional way: Export/import PRO data

Yes, I know what you’re about say. “That’s not an integration!” And technically speaking, you’re right. When we built PRO, we knew our clients needed to have a simple way to manually export their data. That’s a no-brainer. And for many clients, exporting data from PRO and importing into their donor database is second nature. It’s familiar, they have control, and it’s surprisingly fast and easy.

Within PRO, you can export individual PROfiles or entire lists of prospects. Imagine you’ve just screened a list of one thousand donors from your database. You’re happy with the records and scores and it’s time to book some donor meetings. At the top of your project summary, you can click a single button and export all one thousand constituents as a .csv file. From there, you can easily upload into your DMS. Within minutes, each constituent record is updated with the relevant information.

Easy, right? It’s why many of our clients still prefer the manual export/import. But with technology becoming ever more streamlined, manual integration is not for everyone.

FTP – Drag and drop files for processing

Of course, many of our clients work within complex systems that require automated integration between various applications. To help, we developed our own FTP (file transfer protocol) client that serves as a drag-and-drop system. Essentially, it is a folder on your desktop. By dropping a PROscreen file into the folder, we automatically pick it up, screen the records within the file, and email the results and summary to you. You can also access the results in PRO in real time.

Here’s a use case. Imagine you are about to implement daily patient screening as part of your hospital’s fundraising program. First thing in the morning, your IT department could drag and drop a list of yesterday’s patients into the FTP folder. By lunchtime, you receive an email with results. You could either upload the results into your database or view them in PRO to verify the records.

Interested in FTP opportunities? If you’re a client, please contact support@iwave.com. If you’re curious about PRO in general, reach out to us here.

API – A window into PRO from your DMS

For non-techies, this stands for application interface programming (yes, I had to look that up). This is the most advanced form of integration available, and certainly the most customizable.

Imagine you are working within your CRM — let’s make it Salesforce for example. An API is a window into a separate application that exists within your current application. So if you have the iWave API installed in Salesforce, you have access to key PRO information and functionality without having to open a new tab and log in.

The iWave API is available for many platforms. To get started, you’ll need some help from the iWave team and your own IT department. We recommend reaching out to your systems administrator and connect them with us.

“Does PRO integrate with X?” You decide!

PRO currently integrates with Tessitura, Salesforce, and (coming soon) Raiser’s Edge. We make a point to listen to our clients about the integrations they want. Tell us what you need, and we’ll add it to our to-do list. And with major product enhancements rolled out every two weeks, you can trust that we’ll get to work right away. In fact, we might already be on it!

Tell us the integration you want the most in the comments below.

About the author: Ryan McCarvill is iWave’s Content Manager. He joined the iWave team in 2016. Ryan enjoys meeting and learning from nonprofit professionals, researching trends in the nonprofit community, and offering strategies for development teams to use iWave’s solutions to meet and exceed their fundraising goals.